Perforations in bodily walls may be naturally occurring, or formed intentionally or unintentionally. In order to permanently close these perforations and allow the tissue to properly heal, numerous medical devices and methods have been developed employing sutures, adhesives, clips, staples and the like. One class of such devices is commonly referred to as tissue anchors (T-anchors) or visceral anchors. An exemplary tissue anchor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,914, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. Such tissue anchors have been very successful in medical procedures requiring tissue wall mobilization or wall apposition.
Tissue anchors have also been successfully used in closing perforations, but are not without their drawbacks. For example, when a series of anchors are placed around a perforation, all of the individual sutures connected to the anchors must be collected and connected together. It can often be difficult to properly tension each of the individual sutures to ensure proper approximation of the tissue around the perforation and complete closure thereof. This is especially critical within the gastrointestinal tract, where the travel of bacteria laden fluids outside of the tract may cause unwanted and sometimes deadly infection.